Swedenborg offers two two different meanings for the number “two” in the Bible.
In most cases, Swedenborg says that “two” indicates a joining together or unification. This is easy to see if we consider the conflicts we tend to have between our “hearts” and our “heads” – between what we want and what we know. Our “hearts” tell us that we want pie with ice cream for dinner; our “heads” tell us we should have grilled chicken and salad. If we can bring those two together and actually want what’s good for us, we’ll be pretty happy.
We’re built that way – with our emotions balanced against our intellect – because the Lord is built that way. The Lord’s essence is love itself, or Divine Love, the source of all caring, emotion and energy. It is expressed through Divine Wisdom, which gives form to that love and puts it to work, and is the source of all knowledge and reasoning.
It’s easy also to see how that duality is reflected throughout creation: plants and animals, food and drink, silver and gold. Most importantly, Swedenborg says it’s reflected in the two genders, with women representing love and men representing wisdom. That’s the underlying reason why conjunction in marriage is, in Swedenborg, regarded as such a holy thing.
So when “two” is used in the Bible to indicate some sort of pairing or unity, it means a joining together.
In rare cases, however, “two” is used more purely as a number. In these cases it stands for a profane or unholy state that comes before a holy one. This is because “three” represents a state of holiness and completion (Jesus, for instance, rose from the tomb on the third day), and “two” represents the state just before it.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia 720
That pairs signify things relatively profane, is evident from the signification of the number two. A pair, or two, not only signifies marriage (and is, when predicated of the heavenly marriage, a holy number), but it also signifies the same as six. That is to say, as the six days of labor are related to the seventh day of rest, or the holy day, so is the number two related to three; and therefore the third day in the Word is taken for the seventh, and involves almost the same, on account of the Lord’s resurrection on the third day. And hence the Lord’s coming into the world, and in glory, and every coming of the Lord, is described equally by the seventh and by the third day. For this reason the two days that precede are not holy, but relatively are profane. Thus in Hosea:–
Come and let us return unto Jehovah, for He hath wounded, and He will heal us; He hath smitten and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live before Him (Hosea 6:1, 2).
And in Zechariah:–
It shall come to pass in all the land, saith Jehovah, that two parts therein shall be cut off and die, and the third shall be left therein; and I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined (Zechariah 13:8, 9).
And that silver was most pure when purified seven times appears in (Psalms 12:6); from all of which it is plain that as seven does not signify seven, but things that are holy, so by pairs are signified not pairs, but things relatively profane; and therefore the meaning is not that the unclean beasts, or evil affections, in comparison with the clean beasts, or good affections, were few in the proportion of two to seven, for the evils in man are far more numerous than the goods.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 747
- ‘Two and two’ means complementary things. This may become clear to anyone from the fact that they are pairs. It is impossible for them to be pairs unless they are complementary to one another as truths and goods are, or evils and falsities. In fact all things contain the likeness of a marriage or a coupling together, as in the case of truths to goods, or of evils to falsities, because of the marriage of the understanding to the will, or of things of the understanding to those of the will. Indeed everything contains a marriage or coupling together of its own on which its very continuance depends.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 900
- That ‘the second month’ means the whole of the state prior to regeneration is clear from the meaning of ‘two’ in the Word. ‘Two’ has the same meaning as ‘six’, that is, the conflict and toil that come before regeneration. Thus here it means the whole of the state that comes before a person has been regenerated. In the Word it is common for periods of time, long or short, to be divided into threes or sevens and to be called days, weeks, months, years, or ages. ‘Three’ and ‘seven’ are holy, while ‘two’ or ‘six’, which come before them, are not holy but in comparison are unholy, as shown already in 720. Three and seven are also sacred numbers because both of them occur in statements concerning the Last Judgement which will take place on the third or the seventh day. It is the last judgement for everybody when the Lord comes, either in general or in particular. That is to say, there was a last judgement when the Lord came into the world; there will be a last judgement when He comes in glory; there is a last judgement when He comes to each person in particular. There is also a last judgement awaiting everyone when he dies. This last judgement is meant by ‘the third day’ and ‘the seventh day’. It is a holy day for people who have lived well, but not for those who have lived wickedly. Consequently ‘the third day’, and ‘the seventh’, apply to people for whom judgement points to death as well as to those for whom judgement points to life. In reference to those therefore whose judgement points to death these numbers mean that which is not holy, but in reference to those whose judgement points to life they mean that which is holy. Two or six which come before them relate to, and in general mean, the whole of that state which precedes. This is the meaning of the numbers two and six, whatever the subject and whatever the aspects of it they refer to.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1686
- ‘Four kings with five’ means the union existing with the latter four and the lack of union with the other five. This becomes clear from the meaning of ‘four’ and from the meaning of ‘five’. Consisting of two pairs, ‘four’ means union, as also does two when it has regard to things that are married, as also noted in 720. ‘Five’ however means disunity because it is associated with fewness, as shown in 649. All things depend for their particular meanings on the subjects to which they refer.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5194
- ‘And it happened at the end of two years of days’ means after the state when the joining together took place, that is to say, when the powers of the senses belonging to the exterior natural and those belonging to the interior natural were joined together, both of which powers are dealt with in the previous chapter. This is clear from the meaning of ‘two years of days’, that is, a period of two years, as a state involving a joining together; for ‘two’ means a joining together, 1686, 3519, while ‘years’ means states, as does ‘days’. For the meaning of years’ as states, see 487, 488, 493, 893, and for that of ‘days’, 27, 487, 488, 497, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850. The reason ‘two’ means a joining together is that every single thing in the spiritual world, and consequently in the natural world, has two forces associated with it – goodness and truth. Good is an active inflowing force, truth a passive, recipient one. Also, because everything has these two forces associated with it, and because nothing can ever be brought forth unless the two are made one by becoming so to speak married to each other, a joining together is therefore meant by them.
[2] This type of marriage exists in every single thing within the natural order and its three kingdoms; without it nothing whatever can come into existence. For anything to come into existence within the natural order there needs to be heat and light, heat in the natural world corresponding to the good of love in the spiritual world, and light corresponding to the truth of faith. These two – heat and light – must act as one if anything is to be brought forth. If they do not act as one, as is the case in winter-time, nothing at all is brought forth. The same holds true on a spiritual level, as is quite evident with the human being, who has two mental powers – will and understanding. The will has been formed so that it may receive spiritual heat, that is, the good of love and charity, while the understanding has been formed so that it may receive spiritual light, that is, the truth of faith. Unless these two residing with a person make one nothing is brought forth, for the good of love devoid of the truth of faith cannot give definition and particular character to anything, while the truth of faith devoid of the good of love cannot bring anything into effect. So that the heavenly marriage may exist in a person therefore, or rather so that a person may be in the heavenly marriage, those two entities must make one in him.